Riding Tips from Coach

What should I do now? I ask that question over and over in the dark freezing air of a climbers emergency refuge. Outside the wind-driven snow is curling around my motorcycle. It’s getting dark and I am low on fuel. Stay here at 15,000’ near the top of the Andes or...

Riders hate surprises. Well, the unexpected birthday party maybe, but on a motorcycle surprises are bad. On this day, on this bike, at this speed, in this corner, on this line, with these tires, at these pressures, in this heat, wearing this helmet and these gloves,...

Soft Hands for Hard Rides By Ramey ‘Coach’ Stroud Do your hands ever get sore when you ride? Do your fingers ever tingle or go to sleep? How about your neck or your back? Do they hurt too? For many riders these problems are caused by poor posture. Their riding...

Poor hand position on handlebar grips can compress the nerves in our wrists. Do it long enough and our hand(s) start to tingle. If nothing changes, our hand(s) goes to sleep. We bang fingers on the bars or rub them or shake the hand until sensitive motor control...

There is a passage in the ancient book The Art of War that says, "If training is hard, war is easy. But if training is easy, war is hard." Nothing could be more true for the HUMM. Missed another turn, damn it! Ruts. Pot holes. Sand. Hills. Animals. Where is the next...

Even if you're in great shape you still have to manage blood volume during the HUMM. We all know that our hearts pump blood to our muscles and brain. Blood carries oxygen and nutrients to critical systems and scavenges CO2 and other byproducts of oxidation. If blood...

Just like the engine in your bike, your muscles need to warm-up.. And performance drops off if an engine or muscles are starved for fuel. Cardio vascular performance keeps the flow of oxygen and nutrients to organs and muscles and is a critical part of temperature...

Physical endurance is a combination of things. For your upcoming HUMM start working on muscle endurance, cardiovascular conditioning and range-of-motion (stretching). We are each given genetic gifts of slow and fast twitch muscle fiber. Fast-twitch fibers provide...

What should I do now? I ask that question over and over in the dark freezing air of a climbers emergency refuge. Outside the wind-driven snow is curling around my motorcycle. It’s getting dark and I am low on fuel. Stay here at 15,000’ near the top of the Andes or...

Riders hate surprises. Well, the unexpected birthday party maybe, but on a motorcycle surprises are bad. On this day, on this bike, at this speed, in this corner, on this line, with these tires, at these pressures, in this heat, wearing this helmet and these gloves,...

Soft Hands for Hard Rides By Ramey ‘Coach’ Stroud Do your hands ever get sore when you ride? Do your fingers ever tingle or go to sleep? How about your neck or your back? Do they hurt too? For many riders these problems are caused by poor posture. Their riding...

Poor hand position on handlebar grips can compress the nerves in our wrists. Do it long enough and our hand(s) start to tingle. If nothing changes, our hand(s) goes to sleep. We bang fingers on the bars or rub them or shake the hand until sensitive motor control...

There is a passage in the ancient book The Art of War that says, "If training is hard, war is easy. But if training is easy, war is hard." Nothing could be more true for the HUMM. Missed another turn, damn it! Ruts. Pot holes. Sand. Hills. Animals. Where is the next...

Even if you're in great shape you still have to manage blood volume during the HUMM. We all know that our hearts pump blood to our muscles and brain. Blood carries oxygen and nutrients to critical systems and scavenges CO2 and other byproducts of oxidation. If blood...

Just like the engine in your bike, your muscles need to warm-up.. And performance drops off if an engine or muscles are starved for fuel. Cardio vascular performance keeps the flow of oxygen and nutrients to organs and muscles and is a critical part of temperature...

Physical endurance is a combination of things. For your upcoming HUMM start working on muscle endurance, cardiovascular conditioning and range-of-motion (stretching). We are each given genetic gifts of slow and fast twitch muscle fiber. Fast-twitch fibers provide...

When I am coaching off-road riders I often see guys trying to muscle the bike around. There is a common tendency among men to try to force the bike into certain directions or attitudes. After many years of experimenting, I found that the subject of the traction was a great place to start our discussion of body mechanics.